1. Field
The present disclosure relates to protein complexes for intracellular delivery and uses thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many human diseases develop due to abnormal activities of intracellular proteins. Accordingly, number of efforts has been made to develop novel medicines for treating various human diseases by controlling the abnormal activities of such intracellular proteins over the world. In particular, peptide, peptidergic material or protein-type material based on an enzyme-protein or protein-protein interaction that specifically controls biological activities have been rapidly developed. Although a peptide, a polypeptide, and a protein have much better physiological selectivity and efficacy than any other compounds, they cannot easily pass through a cell membrane due to their sizes and biochemical characteristics. Thus, they are not practically used as an effective therapeutic agent and a study material.
Also, control of biological activity by delivering a macromolecule, such as DNA, RNA, protein, oligonucleotide, and peptide, to a cell is very limited due to a cell membrane that constitutes a non-permeable barrier to these molecules. Biologically active macromolecules have very low delivery efficiency into tissues or cells, lack cell-specific targeting ability, and in many cases, decompose in vivo. Due to such obstacles, it is difficult to realize the efficacy of biologically active macromolecules.
Thus, many efforts such as developing various intracellular delivery platforms have been made. For example, recently developed delivery systems using short peptides have been studied. These peptides are cell-permeable and easy to introduce into cells, which characteristics have attracted the attention of researchers. However, the development of a system using delivery peptides has been at a standstill due to lack of commercial-level manufacture, in vitro and in vivo stability issues, and other such obstacles.
Accordingly, even with the availability of such conventional techniques, there remains a need for new compositions and methods for intracellular delivery of biologically active molecules.